Star Trek sequel gets writers

March 31, 2009 - By Liam Goodwin

Paramount have re-hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to write the script for a Star Trek sequel. According to Variety they are aiming to hand in their script by Christmas, with a 2011 summer release likely.

J.J. Abrams, who directed and produced the latest chapter, is onboard to produce the follow-up alongside his Bad Robot partner Bryan Burk. No decision has been made yet on whether Abrams will return behind the camera for the sequel.

“There’s obviously a lot of hubris involved in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn’t even come out yet,” said Lindelof, co-creator with Abrams of ABC’s “Lost” who produced the upcoming “Trek” but did not contribute to Orci and Kurtzman’s screenplay. “But we’re so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed.”

As for potential storylines, Kurtzman stressed that the writing team will wait to take a cue from fan reaction about which direction to go.

“Obviously we discussed ideas, but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month,” he said. “With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We’ll be ambitious about what we’ll do.”

Everything I have seen so far of Star Trek suggests it will be a fun ride, so hopefully it will do well enough at the box office to warrent a sequel.